---
title: "Returning Offline: What Is the Channel Lever?"
description: "The marketing lever has evolved from wholesalers to retail stores to platform traffic, and now, in the bC integration era, the lever is the 'single-store community.' This article explains why the smallest channel unit is crucial for effective marketing and how to replicate it for success."
author: "刘春雄"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2022-04-09"
language: "en"
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# Returning Offline: What Is the Channel Lever?

> The marketing lever has evolved from wholesalers to retail stores to platform traffic, and now, in the bC integration era, the lever is the 'single-store community.' This article explains why the smallest channel unit is crucial for effective marketing and how to replicate it for success.

Lever, focal point, the part that can be grasped. Without a lever, things cannot be grasped or held firmly, and the consequences are predictable.
**The marketing lever is constantly changing.**
Before 1998, in the era of wholesaler radiation, the channel lever was the wholesaler. As long as you grasped the big wholesalers, the rest was left to market radiation.
In the era of deep distribution, the lever was the retail store. If you couldn't grasp the stores, where would sales come from?
In the e-commerce era, the lever was platform traffic. Without traffic, there were no sales.
Returning offline, we enter the bC integration era, where the lever is the "single-store community." The store is the b-end, and the community is the C-end.
**The Lever and the Smallest Operating Unit**
The smallest operating unit is not a common marketing term, but when analyzing the evolution of marketing, this concept helps people quickly grasp the key points.
**In agricultural society, the smallest operating unit was the family.** The family was both a living unit and an agricultural production unit. The high development of Chinese agricultural society was due to the alignment of living and production units, where family life order and agricultural production management order were consistent. Under low-level agricultural production conditions, the effectiveness of the "household contract responsibility system" lies in this.
**In industrial society, the smallest operating unit is the company (enterprise).** As an operating unit, the company is separated from the family living unit. It is precisely because of the large scale of companies that modern management was born. Drucker keenly observed that the company is not only a production unit but also a social unit. The company became a new social system different from the family.
**The emergence of e-commerce brought "platform + small unit organizations," such as HSTYLE's "three-person team."** The platform is a public platform that undertakes many public functions that companies previously had to perform, lowering the threshold for operating units. Small enterprises can rise more quickly by relying on the platform and China's supply chain and manufacturing capacity.
Agricultural society, industrial society, and information society are macro forms, but in terms of business organization, they fall on the smallest operating unit. This is an observation point for grasping the macro through the micro.
**The Smallest Channel Unit Is the "Smallest Base Market"**
**Since 1980, from the manufacturer's perspective, the smallest channel unit has undergone several changes:**
* Before 1998, the "provincial distributor" was the smallest channel unit for the "first tier."
* From 1998 to 2000, the "city distributor" was the smallest channel unit for the "first tier."
* From 2000 to 2002, the "county distributor" was the smallest channel unit for the "first tier."
* After 2003, entering the deep distribution era, the retail store became the smallest channel unit.
* After 2012, with the rise of e-commerce, the C-end user became the smallest channel unit for e-commerce.
**From the perspective of the smallest channel unit, before 2003 it was changing at the B-end, after 2003 it entered the b-end, and after 2012 it entered the C-end. B→b→C is the law of channel change.** The smallest channel unit is both the frontline of the manufacturer's (brand's) marketing work and the object of frontline personnel's work.
The effectiveness of channel work depends on whether the work has advanced to the current smallest channel unit and whether frontline personnel are working around it. Marketing transformation is also about moving from one smallest unit to another, and the changes in the smallest unit bring about changes in related work.
**The value of the smallest channel unit is reflected in the following four aspects:**
**First, the smallest channel unit is the "lever" for work.**
"Lever" refers to the part that can be held (grasped). Without a lever, there is no "focal point," and work is difficult to carry out. Once the enterprise determines the smallest channel unit, it finds the "lever" for operation. If you still cannot find the operational "lever," it may be because the chosen smallest unit is wrong.
The smallest unit is not necessarily the smaller the better, but should match the overall social environment at the time. For example, the shift from B to b to C matches the overall progress of Chinese marketing.
F2B2b2C digitalization is digitalization based on deep distribution. Deep distribution has already reached the b-end. Should we directly grasp the C-end like e-commerce? **The soul of channel digitalization is bC integration, which means grasping both the b-end and the C-end, and establishing a technical connection between b and C, forming a technical binding. These are the tasks for F2B2b2C implementation. The "lever" for this work is the single-store community.**
**Second, the smallest channel unit is a small closed loop.**
If deep distribution is only about distribution, there is no closed loop. **"Distribution + sell-through" constitutes the closed-loop system of deep distribution.** Distribution does b-end work, then converts the effect of b-end work into C-end work. Effective C-end work, in turn, strengthens b-end work. This is a small closed loop.
Forming a closed loop is to enter a positive cycle and benign operation, not to become a "bottomless pit" of policies and expenses. A small closed loop is a closed-loop system with a relatively short chain, low complexity, and easy operation.
In early deep distribution, distribution meant sell-through, and distribution naturally converted to sell-through. Later, when sell-through became difficult, terminal sales promotion and terminal interception emerged, which are C-end oriented work.
Later, some enterprises with good deep distribution promoted "three rounds or more of sell-through to activate terminals," which strengthens the distribution that had lost its closed loop into a closed loop. **Taking the single-store community as the smallest channel unit for channel digitalization is itself a bC closed-loop design. The b-end can activate the C-end, and the C-end can also activate the b-end, making it easier to form a closed loop.**
**Third, the smallest channel unit can "trial and error" but "not make mistakes."**
In the exploration of new models, trial and error is a necessary stage. The trial-and-error process may be a process of making mistakes. The larger the trial unit, the greater the mistake, and it may even become an "unbearable burden" for the enterprise. **Therefore, trial and error must control the boundaries.**
Any trial-and-error process requires resource investment. The larger the trial unit, the greater the investment for a positive cycle, and the longer the cycle period.
For example, if a province is the operating unit, the investment of time and resources is very large. If the smallest channel unit is used as the trial unit, the effect of the pilot method can be examined with fewer resources in as short a time as possible. If the effect is not good, the enterprise can adjust as soon as possible.
**Fourth, the smallest channel unit is replicable.**
**The smallest channel unit is an independent system. If it can be replicated, multiple smallest units can be connected to form a larger unit. Or, any large unit system can be decomposed into smallest unit systems.** Trial and error, trial and success, and model replication are the necessary processes for exploring new models. The model formed in the smallest channel unit can be expanded to the whole.
For small and medium-sized enterprises, if they cannot expand channels to a larger market in the short term, the smallest channel unit can become the "smallest base market," and the enterprise's development can be a rolling expansion of the "smallest base market." **Small and medium-sized enterprises first build a base market, then roll out and replicate, connecting to form strategic regional markets. This is a steady expansion path.**
**The Best Operational "Lever"—Single-Store Community**
**Taking the single-store community as the smallest channel unit for channel digitalization is determined by the bC integration feature of channel digitalization.** The single store is the retail end (b), and the community is a dense C-end.
The single-store community includes both the b-end and the C-end, which is the core of dual private domains: on the F-end technology platform, achieving reach and connection to the C-end. The process of reaching and connecting is itself the bC technical binding, completing bC integration. **Therefore, the smallest channel unit and operational "lever" for F2B2b2C is the single-store community.**
If the single-store community is not easy to understand, people can refer to the community group buying model. In community group buying, the b-end is the "group leader," and the C-end is in the community. Therefore, the smallest operating unit of community group buying is also the single-store community.
In the single-store community, the value of the b-end is that it is the b-end, the interface between traditional commerce and the C-end, and a relationship will definitely occur. In the process of reaching, connecting, and activating the C-end, enterprises need the cooperation of the b-end. The process of channel digitalization is the monetization of b-end relationships, from deep relationships to deep connections.
**The single-store community is not a single C-end, but a group of C-ends included in the community, a C-end in a small area.** The single store is naturally a retail store; the community refers to a group of C-ends related to the retail store.
When the bC integration of the single-store community is done well, the smallest channel unit is activated. When the smallest channel unit achieves a positive cycle, it can develop in a rolling manner, forming a contiguous area, and become a larger operating unit. And units can penetrate and reinforce each other.
When the enterprise determines the single-store community as the smallest channel unit, the grassroots operating organization and personnel are also determined accordingly, namely the original traditional deep distribution personnel and sales promoters. The original deep distribution work was 2B, and the current digital work is bC integration. Only by adding a few actions to the original deep distribution can the enterprise complete the digital work.
**The digital work of frontline personnel includes two items: one is to reach, connect, and activate users, which cannot be completed in one go and requires many rounds; the other is routine bC integrated operations.**
Deep distribution personnel are the main frontline operators for reaching, connecting, and activating. Why choose the original deep distribution personnel? Because deep distribution personnel have relationships with the retail end (store managers, clerks), and also understand the relationship status between the store and community users. Sales promoters become important digital personnel. In the past, after the transaction ended, the sales promotion work ended. Now, after the transaction ends, the work of connecting users begins.
**When deep distribution personnel engage in digital frontline work, they must first solve the following problems with the retail end:**
First, determine the appropriate retail stores. Especially in the early pilot stage, the willingness of retail stores is very important. Second, the store registers in the system, which is technical work. Third, the store's online mall SKU listing (technical work), and the store determines the profit distribution plan for products without SKUs. Fourth, the method of reaching and connecting users. For KA stores, the bC dual code is more appropriate; for small stores, the bC mini-program is more appropriate.
**Model Replication of Single-Store Communities: Sensation Strategy and Rolling Strategy**
The single-store community is the smallest channel unit for channel digitalization. The goal of digitalization is to fully integrate with traditional channels, completing millions of terminals, tens of millions of touchpoints, and hundreds of millions of users.
So, how to start from the "single-store community" and achieve the goal of hundreds of millions of users? **The method is to adopt the single-store community rolling replication model.** After trial and error and trial and success, how to carry out model replication? **There are two major strategies: one is the sensation strategy, and the other is the rolling strategy. Of course, you can also roll first and then create a sensation.**
**The sensation strategy is to expand comprehensively, without order, and promote globally.** The advantage is speed and impact, and channel resources may quickly concentrate to the manufacturer in the short term. However, an early sensation strategy requires relatively large resource investment, and the comprehensive promotion of an immature model may encounter great difficulties.
**The rolling strategy is to start the surrounding smallest units after the smallest operating unit enters a positive cycle, thereby forming a contiguous market and rolling cyclically.** For the digital rolling strategy, according to KA stores and small stores, we divide it into single-store rolling for KA stores and community rolling for small stores.
We should first make one KA store successful, attract the interest of other KA stores, and then do the second and third KA stores. One KA store can cover multiple communities, which is a very effective method. When KA stores form density, the operation of a city is activated.
Although small stores are also the smallest operating units, the C-end has community characteristics, and a community often has multiple small stores. Therefore, after a single small store succeeds, digitalization should immediately enter other stores in the community to thoroughly penetrate the community.
The role of thoroughly penetrating the community is to build a moat. Community rolling can also cover a city in the short term. The model replication plan in the eyes of senior management may be for larger areas, such as city units or province units. But in the eyes of frontline operators, this is actually the rolling replication of the smallest digital channel unit.
Source: Teacher Liu's Digital New Marketing
(ID: liuchunxiong1964)
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